LONDON – As Queen Elizabeth II and her family say their final farewell to Prince Philip on Saturday, it is Prince Harry’s return to the UK that has caught the attention of the public.
Earlier this week, Harry, the queen’s grandson, arrived in the UK and went directly to Frogmore Cottage, his home on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where he is quarantined before the funeral according to coronavirus regulations.
His wife, Meghan, who is pregnant with their second child, allegedly stayed at their home in California on the advice of her doctor.
Harry and his brother, Prince William, will not walk side by side in the ceremonial procession behind their grandfather’s coffin before the funeral at Windsor Castle, according to details released by Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
This is the Duke of Sussex’s first time in Britain in over a year and since he and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have resigned from their roles as senior royals and moved across the Atlantic.
It also comes just over a month after the couple gave an all-and-again interview to media mogul Oprah Winfrey, where Meghan discussed her suicidal thoughts during her work as a royal.
“There will be an intense investigation into the brothers on Saturday. Everyone is going to be looking for any clues as to how they feel, how it’s going,” Emily Nash, royal editor of Hello !, told NBC. “TODAY” program.
“I’m sure members of the royal family want to put more than anything on a united front and really want to show their support for the queen. It should be a priority this weekend.”
Professional royal viewers and family therapists agree that Harry’s relationship with his family, and especially his brother, William, has attracted the attention of so many people, especially since splits are common in so many families.
“We forget that the royal family is a family and that they have the same ups and downs as most of us,” said Victoria Howard, editor of The Crown Chronicles. “When someone dies, it gives you reflection and a chance to reflect.”
London behavioral psychologist Jo Hemmings said that as a nation the royal family had a craving to resolve the differences – especially after the death of William and Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
“As a nation, we want them to reconcile. It feels uncomfortable, disturbing and sad, regardless of the right or wrong of it, that it was two boys who were traumatized at such a young age by the tragedy of their mother’s death, that you just want them to be on one or the other way to get through it, whatever it takes, ”Hemmings said.
“They are not our family, but we feel we grew up with them through their problems and their joy.”
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Even former prime ministers weighed in on the relationship between the brothers and the hope for a reconciliation.
“The friction we have been told is a friction that can be ended as quickly as possible,” the former prime minister said John Major, who was guardian of William and Harry after Diana’s death.
Philip’s funeral ‘is an ideal occasion’, he said told the BBCand adds that he “very much hopes that it is possible to repair any cracks.”
But recent events, allegations and allegations will certainly weigh on the family as it prepares for the gloomiest day for the royals since the queen mother was buried nearly 20 years ago.
In the interview with Winfrey, Said Harry he was cut off financially and that his father, Prince Charles, at one point stopped calling. He described the relationship with his brother, William, as ‘space’.
Meghan, whose mother is Black, also said an unidentified royal insider spoke to Harry about how dark their children’s skin would be.
The interview follows the announcement in February that Harry and Meghan will not return to their roles as working members of the royal family. The couple left the UK last year, first living in Canada and then moving to California shortly thereafter. Then the pandemic hit them no opportunity to return to the UK and see Harry’s family face to face.
William did not publicly comment on the allegations the couple made in the interview, other than a brief response from one sentence to an interviewed journalist days after the interview was broadcast.
“We are very much not a racist family,” the Duke of Cambridge said days after Harry and Meghan’s interview was broadcast.
The last time the brothers were seen together in public was at Harry’s last appearance as a royal at Westminster Abbey in March 2020, where they apparently did not talk. Their relationship has long been under speculation in the media, and Harry’s expected return has caught newspaper headlines almost as soon as Philip’s death was announced.
The brothers released separate statements about their grandfather on Monday. William said his grandfather wanted the royal family to ‘get on with the job’ and release a photo of his son, Prince George, who is third in line and sits with Philip on a carriage.
Harry remembers Philip as “my grandfather: master of roast beef, legend of jokes and tough to the end.”